LONDON - WESTERN governments lined up to condemn 'disturbing' new charges brought against Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, but there was a deafening silence in Asia.
Gordon Brown, leader of the former colonial power Britain, said the junta which has kept her under house arrest for years wanted any excuse to extend her detention while the European Union said the move could not be justified.
Asia silent
THE chorus of official condemnation in the West however was in sharp contrast to the reaction in Asia. Calls and emails to the Jakarta secretariat of Asean were not immediately answered and there was no immediate official reaction from Myanmar's eastern neighbour and ally China, nor any Asian governments.
Asean has long been wary of criticising Myanmar but the 10-nation club has found itself embarrassed by the regime, led by the reclusive General Than Shwe.
The United States also said it was 'troubled' by the development but there was no immediate response from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional bloc which includes the country formerly known as Burma.
'I am deeply disturbed that Aung San Suu Kyi may be charged with breaching the terms of her detention,' Mr Brown said in a statement. 'The Burmese regime is clearly intent on finding any pretext, no matter how tenuous, to extend her unlawful detention,' he said. 'If the 2010 elections are to have any semblance of credibility, she and all political prisoners must be freed to participate.'
The 63-year-old, who was stopped by the junta from taking power after winning elections two decades ago, has been charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest after a US man swam across a lake and hid inside her home. She will go on trial on Monday on the charges, which carry a maximum jail term of five years and would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date this month and through elections due in 2010.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her two maids appeared in court at the notorious Insein Prison near Yangon, hours after police whisked her away from the residence where she has been detained for most of the past two decades.
Piero Fassino, the European Union's special envoy to Myanmar, said there was 'no justification' for the decision to charge her. He told Italy's Channel 5 television the international community should use 'every possible means to press for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi' as well as 'the 2,000 other political prisoners who are held in Burmese jails.'
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and human rights minister Rama Yade issued a joint statement condemning the arrest 'in the strongest terms'. 'This decision is all the more unacceptable given the Nobel Peace laureate's state of health which has deteriorated over the past several days,' they said.
In Norway, where Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel prize in 1991, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said he was 'disturbed' by the charges and demanded her immediate release. And in the United States, the State Department said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked for more information on the 'troubling' developments.
'We have seen this report, which is certainly troubling if true,' spokesman Ian Kelly said. -- AFP
